Delicatessen review

 Number 527 on the top 1000 films of all time is the French, post-apocalyptic, black-comedy Delicatessen.

Delicatessen is set in a ruined apartment building over a butcher shop. A mysterious apocalypse has occurred and food is in short supply. Don't ask what type of meat the butcher/landlord Clapet (Jean-Claude Dreyfuss) is selling. Hopefully, it won't be new tenant and circus clown Laison (Dominique Pinon) or his beau Jane - Clapet's daughter (Marie-Laure Dougnac.)

In the US, this film was released as being presented by Terry Gillam. Although I'm not sure why as I couldn't see any evidence of him having anything to do with the making of this film. Perhaps it was because this film was purely Terry Gillam.

Once being part of the legendary Monty Python comedy troupe, he has gone onto direct the famously surreal and incomprehensible Brazil and Twelve Monkeys. Delicatessen was similarly surreal and incomprehensible. It was all far too weird and zany for me.

Perhaps I'm just not clever enough to truly understand the true genius behind the film, but it seemed weird for the sake of being weird. From the firey colour palate to the strange cast of characters, it was all so strange. I could follow the main story well enough - the clown and his girlfriend are trying not to become dinner. As for everything else? Not a clue.

If you want to say this is a bad review, I wouldn't blame you. But can you critique a film that is so difficult to understand? It was all too weird for me.

Serpico review

 Number 521 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 1973 crime-drama Serpico.

Based on a true story, Serpico tells the tale of real-life NYPD Frank Serpico (Al Pacino) and his struggles to expose corruption in the police department.

Serpico certainly isn't the first whistleblowing film Al Pacino would star in. he also appeared in the 1997 film The Insider where he plays a TV producer helping to expose corruption in the tobacco industry where the Insider was slow-paced with not much happening, Serpico was far more interesting.

We are thrust straight into the action along with Al Pacino as we see him being rushed into hospital after being shot in the head. Who shot him? We don't know. Maybe one of his corrupt colleagues who he tried exposing. Yet it remains obvious that Serpico is the only straight cop in a severely bent cop stop.

He soon comes to odds with his fellow police as he refuses to take bribes or follow the crooked rules of his colleagues. Serpico goes onto embrace the countercultural attitudes of the time further alienating himself form the other coppers especially high command who are as bent as the rest.

As always Al Pacino was impressive. He was great as the dark and brooding Frank Serpico. The seventies was definitely a great decade for Pacino. He starred in the Godfather films, Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico.

Due to my previous experience with whistle-blowing films, I was not expecting to enjoy Serpico. I'm glad to say I was wrong.

Blazing Saddles review

 Number 507 on the top 1000 films of all time is Mel Brooks' parody of the Western genre: Blazing Saddles.

Bart (Clavon Little) is a black railway worker in 1974 on the American frontier. When the townspeople of Rock Ridge realise they're going to be bullied out by the corrupt politician Hedley Lemar (Harvey Korman) they designate Bart to be the sheriff of the town. He is assisted by alcoholic gunslinger Jim the Waco Kid. (Gene Wilder)

My favourite Mel Brooks' film is his parody of Robin Hood: Men in Tights. I thought it was absolutely hilarious and so clever. In many ways Blazing Saddles was his warm-up act - to a lesser extent, you also had Young Frankenstein. But Blazing Saddles shared the same meta-humour as Men In Tights. Men in Tights even hearkened back to its spiritual predecessor.

Granted, Blazing Saddles gets a bit ridiculous toward the end where it not only breaks the fourth but the fifth, sixth and seventh walls. Bart and Jim's posse fight with Hedley Lamar's posse spills out onto a neighbouring film set and the real world with Lemar escaping to a nearby cinema. The cinema is showing none other than Blazing Saddles. It was silly, but I didn't mind.

The film was full of tis funny meta-humour like when Lamar recruits a posse and everybody from the SS to the KKK and the Hells Angels turn up.

Yet this film wasn't all just humour. There was also some good performances from Cleavon Little - for the longest time I thought it was Richard Pryor in the lead role, but he just wrote the script. Gene Wilder also showed his comedic chops with a touch of emotional intensity as Jim.

Overall, I enjoyed Blazing Saddles. Sure it was silly at times, but it was just a warm up for Men in Tights. Mel brooks was a master of parody, wasn't he?